Flower Child
by reader1718
Summary: Tony Wyzek discovers he has a very unusual mother in this Percy Jackson crossover.


Flower Child: Child of Demeter

Tony Wyzek was a normal kid, or at least he thought he was. He led the Jets gang, one of the most notorious gangs of boys on New York's West Side. He and the other boys loved to mess around with one of the other rival gangs, made up of Puerto Rican boys that lived in some of the poorer homes on the West Side, the Sharks. Then one day, Tony decided he was tired of messing around with the Sharks, at which point he decided to quit, passing leadership to the co-leader—his friend Riff. He still remained friends with the boys after that day, even though he no longer ran with the gang. But then something happened that disrupted Tony's quiet, carefree life. It happened one day when Tony was helping out with a community gardening project. Tony loved to garden, even though his friends could never truly understand his passion for it. He had a green thumb, and when he wasn't gardening, he loved to cook. He was very good at it and even made most of the meals in the family. This particular day, though, was the day his life would change forever.

All the volunteers had gone home, except for Tony, when his friends came by to see if he was done yet. The work was technically done, but Tony didn't want to leave yet because gardening was his passion and he seemed to have a natural talent for it. Just then, however, a feathered creature with the head of a woman and the body of a bird flew down from a nearby roof and landed in front of them. "What the heck is that?!" Baby John asked, clearly terrified. "I think that's what's called a harpy. According to the myths, they're very nasty and vicious creatures, very dangerous. I think we'd better get out of here NOW!" Tony cried, running full speed in the opposite direction of the harpy. The strange thing was, even when they split up, the harpy chased Tony instead of following them. "What do you want with me? I never did anything to you!" Tony shouted to the pursuing creature. The creature didn't answer him, but instead attacked him. "Not a big talker, huh? Well, fine, bring it on!" Tony shouted.

He fought the harpy and was just barely holding her off, when a strange guy showed up and shouted, "Hey, ugly! Why don't you pick on someone your own size!" He then tossed a small object that looked like a pen Tony's way. Tony caught it and stared at it. _What am I supposed to do with this?_ he wondered. "Click it, Tony!" the guy (who told him his name was Aaron) shouted, upon seeing his confused look. Not stopping to wonder how Aaron knew his name, Tony clicked the pen. Immediately it became a sword, much to their surprise! When the harpy charged again, Tony held her off with the sword. The harpy was still coming strong, however, so without stopping to think, Tony called to the plants he sensed all around him and suddenly vines lashed tightly around the harpy's wings! She screeched with anger and tried to escape from the vines that imprisoned her, to no avail. She only became more entangled in the vine trap. Finally she could no longer move. Tony finished her off with the sword and she disintegrated.

The Jets just stared in mute astonishment at Tony standing there, sword in hand. It was Riff who finally broke the silence. "What the heck?! What just happened here?!" he exclaimed. "I have no idea," Tony said, not understanding what had happened either. "Explanations later. Right now we need to get you out of here," Aaron said quickly. "Whoa! I'm not going anywhere with you! I don't even know you!" Tony said, unnerved. "Look, I've been assigned to protect you and others like you, and I'm telling you we need to get you to your home so you can pack and we can get you safely to the Camp," Aaron said. Tony started to ask more questions, but Aaron cut him off.  
They headed out for Tony's house and when they got there, Aaron told Tony's father, Jack, what had happened. Jack immediately raced to the bedroom to start packing Tony a suitcase, ignoring his son's questions, promising to explain on the way to the Camp. En route to the Camp, Tony learned that Jack had met his mother while both of them were volunteering to help plant some new trees in the park. They'd gotten to talking and ended up going to look at the community garden together later. One thing had led to another, and before they knew it, she was pregnant. Nine months later, Tony had been born and for a while things were wonderful. But then one day she'd had to leave. Jack hadn't even found out her name, but he kept saying she was "dazzling". Tony thought he heard Aaron mutter something like, "They're always dazzling", but he wasn't sure, so he kept quiet. He didn't understand and probably never would, but he tried to not be sullen about it.

Once they arrived, they ran into a fight between a minotaur and a young boy. "Run Percy!" the woman who was with the kid screamed. "Not without you, Mom!" the kid cried, determined not to leave his mother behind. "Go!" his mother cried, and finally the boy, Percy, ran toward the campground Tony could now see in the distance. "Go with Percy, Tony," Jack told his son. "I can't enter Camp Half-Blood. Only you can. It's a place where you'll be safe, okay?" Tony was reluctant to leave his father, but he finally did as he was told. He grabbed his stuff and ran toward the camp. Once he got over there, he felt himself pass through a barrier, but the minotaur that was chasing him hit it and couldn't get through. He was safe, finally.

"Welcome young demigods. I know you, Percy Jackson, but I don't know your friend. Who are you, young one?" a voice asked from behind Tony and Percy. "Mr. Brunner!" Percy cried, running to him immediately. Tony, on the other hand, didn't know quite what to make of the creature who stood before him. From the waist upwards, he was a man, but below the waist, he had the body of a large white horse! "Holy crap, a centaur! I've heard of them, but I never dreamed they existed! I'm Tony Wyzek," Tony told the centaur. "Hello Tony. You may have gathered from Percy's greeting that I am called Mr. Brunner. However, that is only in the human world. Here I am called Chiron. Do you know who your god parent is, young Tony?" Chiron (Tony noticed he pronounced it as CHI-ron) asked him. "No, I don't. All I know is that Dad says she was into trees and nature," Tony replied. "Well, hopefully she will claim you before too long," Chiron said. Then Percy introduced Tony to Grover Underwood, who was the satyr who'd first told Percy he was a demigod. They began to walk toward the cabins where a girl with long blond hair and blue eyes who had a Yankees baseball cap tucked in her pocket waited for them. "Hi. I'm Annabeth Chase. So I heard you're Percy and you're Tony. Okay, you're both in the Hermes cabin. That's where all the unclaimed kids go. Whether they stay in there for good or not depends on whether their god parent claims them," Annabeth explained as she led them over to it.  
Tony also was given a choice of personal weapons from the camp stash, out of which Tony chose a small dagger, which gleamed brightly when light hit it. Percy already had a sword named Riptide given him by Chiron.

It was a few days before Tony's mother finally claimed him. They were at the campfire one night, when suddenly a glowing symbol appeared above Tony's head, shaped like a poppy flower. "The parentage is revealed. Hail Tony Wyzek, son of Demeter, Lady of the Seasons, Goddess of agriculture and the harvest!" Chiron declared, to the astonishment of the whole camp. After that, Tony went back to the Hermes cabin for the night, then was shown to the Demeter cabin the next day, which had a roof made of growing grass and had tomato vines growing on the walls. It had wild flowers and roses growing on the porch. The cabin color was a light shade of brown. Tony fell in love with it immediately and couldn't wait to meet his fellow Demeter campers. He soon met the cabin's occupants: Katie Gardner, Miranda Gardiner (who was apparently the head counsellor), and many other young demigods just like him. Tony was truly glad to meet them and he and Katie immediately started planning a gardening project.

Soon Tony discovered he had special powers related to Demeter. They included the ability to manipulate and control plants with his mind (known as "chlorokinesis"), which was the power he'd unknowingly employed against the harpy, and natural cooking ability. Even though his powers were very few, Tony knew from experience that they could still be mighty weapons, especially the first. He could use his primary ability to cause plants to quickly manifest from the soil and wrap around a target, to mutate plants by rearranging DNA structures, and revive recently withering plants or dead plants. He could also create bridges out of woods or make vines grow to support the person and get him/her on a higher level from the ground, weaponize plants by hitting or grasping the target with roots and vines, projecting thorns at a distance, and also to release deadly toxins and pheromones. He used his powers to help make the cabin look nice, and to put poison ivy in people's beds if they made him angry enough. This was often the case with the Ares campers, who were pretty much the camp bullies.

One evening, life at Camp Half-Blood was rocked with the dramatic appearance of Hades. That was when the campers found out that Zeus's master lightning bolt had gone missing and Percy was the prime suspect due to being Poseidon's son. In order to prove his innocence, he had to go on a quest to find the bolt and return it by the summer solstice in ten days or there would be dire consequences. Annabeth and Grover volunteered to go along with Percy to help him retrieve it, and Tony did too, figuring he might be able to help them find it. However, Chiron believed that Hades had stolen the bolt, so Percy and Annabeth they headed to Los Angeles where the entrance to the Underworld was located. Along the way, they encountered several mythological monsters and Ares, who told Percy that his mother had been taken to the Underworld, but she was still alive. As they approached the pit of Tartaurus, Luke's winged shoes—a gift from his father, Hermes, which he'd given to Percy, who'd given them to Grover—tried to pull Grover into the Underworld, but Grover managed to get them off his hooves just in time. They eventually made it to the Underworld and had a confrontation with Hades, who also believed Percy had stolen the bolt as well as his Helm of Darkness. It turned out Hades hadn't stolen the bolt, so they were at a dead end again. But then, Percy checked his backpack and discovered the missing bolt inside.

Apparently when Ares had given him the backpack, he'd snuck the bolt inside. They fled the Underworld and they relocated Ares, whom Percy defeated by hurting his heel. Ares then gave them back the Helm of Darkness, which they returned to Hades. They then headed out of the Underworld and caught a ride back to New York City, where they headed toward the Empire State Building to return the Master Bolt to Zeus. They managed to make it and Tony beheld his mother at full size in the Olympian Pantheon. Percy was exonerated, but one question was still unanswered: who was the original thief who took the Bolt? The group headed back to Camp Half-Blood after returning the Bolt, but before they'd even gotten off the building, they ran into Luke. He told them Chiron had sent him to help them, but then Annabeth sensed something wasn't right since they hadn't been able to tell Chiron anything. She confronted Luke about that, and Luke revealed that HE had taken the lightning bolt, but had been captured by Ares. Luke had appealed to Ares' love of a good war and convinced him that all he had to do was hide the Bolt for awhile and it would start a war between the Olympians. Ares had accepted and as a result, a war had begun between Zeus and Poseidon, with different gods taking each side. Percy was the first to figure out that Luke was working for Cronos. He was proven right a moment later when Luke laughed evilly and confirmed Percy's suspicions. The young demigods engaged Luke in a battle royale over New York City. Unbeknownst to Tony, his friends were watching the battle and saw him fighting Luke alongside the other demigods. Finally Percy managed to vanquish Luke with his power over water and they all returned to Camp Half-Blood, where they found forms to fill out so the camp director, Mr. D. (aka Dionysus) would know who was staying at camp year-round. Tony and Percy chose to return home and Percy got to go to a new school and get rid of his smelly stepfather, Gabe Ugliano. Tony lived a very different life after that as well. He had a new sword from Chiron that he frequently used to battle the mythological monsters and other creatures that came into his life, while balancing time with his non-demigod friends, school, and camp too. He made a name for himself as a hero and left behind a legacy that would last a lifetime.


End file.
